Archives For League of Legends

Aka, as I Like to Call It ‘Welcome to the Pain Train.’

An In-depth Look in League of Legends Mid-Lane and Jungle

It’s been a while but as I’ve said before, this is something you always keep coming back to. After a break, I’ve been thinking about what I saw in the rest of the jobs. I’ve reviewed and looked over, coming to just one point: they hurt. If they are doing their job as they should, these roles cause such havoc throughout the match. I know many would disagree and says supports don’t hurt because they don’t build big damage. It’s not the damage they do, it is what happens when they do the job right. Everything in League revolves in building and playing right, or to the best of your abilities. The heaviest damage dealers are those in bottom and middle lane; both champions are picked for the amount of burst damage they can do. Bottom is traditionally an Attack Damage (AD) and ranged champion while the middle lane is an Ability Power (AP) and can be both melee or ranged, relying on their spells than auto attacks. While both the jungle and top lane offer a large amount of damage, these two roles tend to offer the heaviest if built up right and are not shut down.

The middle traditionally is an AP champion though in some team compositions an AD champion is not unheard of in the current META, both ranged and bruiser. It is all about poke damage, damage from a distance, and burst damage, laying down a combo and dealing heavy damage or outright killing the enemy. There are many types of mid champions that have early burst, passive laning phases or high mobility. It depends all on the type of player, the enemy team composition and your own team composition. If your team is heading for a mobility team, where both top and mid are highly moving champions and are more than able to ambush (gank) other lanes to secure kills, make sure you are able to offer that with what you pick. Middle lane offers most of the team’s early game-play through ganking lanes with mobile champions or help securing early dragons. Remember, dragon give both global gold and experience.

Counter-picking can be very heavy in middle lane because is shortest lane which means it gains experience and gold through minion kills much faster than the other lane. Being counter-picked can lead to a hard game but do not panic and do your best to avoid getting ganked and set up ganks with your jungler. Sometimes playing a defensive or passive lane will allow you to build up your burst and help your team gaining objectives and winning team fights; just do not give up if you’ve been counter-picked. I’ve been on many receiving ends of being counter-picked, even to the point of losing my lane or dominating it. When you’ve been counter-picked, the lane can go one of two ways: lose the lane in farm, gold and kills or dominate against the counter-pick. I know it sounds strange to say, ‘dominate against a counter’ and many players think it’s the end of the world but it really isn’t. A champion can counter another through many ways such as for example disengages or initiations, or even sheer burst damage. Kits can only go so far and it’s all up to the players and what their own skills will let them do.

Diana, Scorn of the Moon

I’ve played more than my share of being counter picked in all the lanes but the worse for myself is being countered in middle lane. I don’t find much pressure on top being counter because it’s not always about bursting down the enemy as it is in mid. I’ve played a lot of Diana mid-lane games being both countered and doing the countering; it never mattered if I was countered or not. While being countered, I focus on farming out my lane and being safe by warding around me for ganks. If the enemy player want to try to burst myself down or roam, I try to take what advantages I can and if they roam, I try to push down the middle turret as fast as I can. Middle turret is a very important turret in any game; it can allow for a team to push down through the quickest route into the base. I’ve played against a Mordekaiser, the reason of it counter Diana is because his shield is better than hers as well as his item choices. He tends to heal through doing damage whereas Diana does not. Being on the losing lane against him, I hold my lane and turret as long as I could while farming as much as possible. Doing this rewarded myself later in the game by being able to secure a triple kill and allow for our top laner to invade and start to destroy the enemy base.

Best Diana Game EVER

While being on the other side of countering someone else, I try to take full advantage of both my skills and knowledge. I played Diana against a Master Yi player and was highly rewarded with my play as was my team. Diana is a great champion to go against him; she is not easy to burst down with her being a bruiser assassin. Master Yi does high burst damage early game but with Diana’s shield, you can negate a lot of the damage. Once I hit level 6, I am more than able to dive him under his turret and kill him which allowed me to build early and carry my team into a surrender just after twenty minutes. When you are countering someone, make sure you are more than comfortable in your skills and who you are up against. Go into a fight with knowledge of the enemy jungler and your own if they are willing to help in a kill. Knowledge of what the other champion will help you more than you know. If you know cool-downs as well damage output, you can force a counter-pick to be a skill battle and dominate.

Even in other positions, knowing cool-downs and burst damage can help on when you initiate a fight in your team’s favour. Reporting when summoner spells, crowd control and escape skills are on cool down will help your jungler come and ambush (gank) your lane or another teammate as well as securing a dragon or baron. Your jungler is a vital part of the team; they keep the enemy guessing on where a player is at all times as well as help a lane win harder or help them when they are losing. A main job of a jungler is gank a lane to kill an enemy champion or push them out of lane, to help secure and protect the buffs within the jungle while help securing baron and dragon. They want to apply pressure in lanes to allow for their team to have an advantage. By using the term gank or ambush, it is as exactly as one would think. They wait in the fog of war, hidden unless seen by a ward to warn of them, and dive into a lane using crowd control effects or tanking the damage while their team mate kills the enemy champion.

Vi, the Piltover Enforcer

There is not a lot of counter-picking here as mid, top or bot lanes because you aren’t going to always duel the enemy jungler. It’s not in your job description to always hunt down the other jungler. While getting shut downs on a killing spree of the enemy jungler or counter ganking is possible, you want to assist you team. Picking a champion that will fight and help the team succeed is what you need to do. Whether being a tank or a bruiser or even offering a high amount of crowd control; you want to assist and help or secure what cannot be secure from your teammates. Controlling objectives on the map is a good thing to help and will allow for your team to make plays.

There are many ways to play junglers and which champions fit your play style as well as how your team plays. The team of players I play with has a never ending pile of junglers; almost all of them play the jungle role and all play differently. Even if they play the same champion, how they use the champion and how they are affect the game are all differently. Our current jungler is a bit heavy on being an initiator and is all about disrupting and getting everyone out of position. He plays champions that are able to dive turrets and into full 5 against 5 man fights; he wants to be able to do damage to push others off his own team and back out. In comparison to our back up jungler who is also our top laner, he prefers heavy crowd control teams and junglers; he likes to shut down the movements and abilities of the enemy. He likes to wait for the enemy to be out of position and doesn’t force fights, waiting for the perfect moment to kill the carries.

Warwick, the Blood HunterTundra Skin

Both are very different and so are a lot of others even our veteran jungler, who has taken up being a support, takes both of these ways using them as well as applying more to the position. He is a play maker jungler. He calls the shots in a fight as well as what is going to happen, whether we’re taking a dragon, turret or lying siege to the base. His champion pool is diverse and open to many types of junglers from assassins to tanks to brusiers; his play style is affected by the composition of the team and the play styles of his teammates. From a patience game to an aggressive initiation, he will do everything for his team. His ability to read and make plays has been taking into account when he plays support and giving that leadership for multiple roles. He is like some junglers being able to take different ways and meld them to the situation and team. Not all junglers are encompassed to these types and I couldn’t even begin to compare and try to categorize styles.

The last two roles in the 5v5 games is that of the support and AD carry which is a world of their own. Being the only lane with two people sharing, they must work together and meld two play styles together or harmonize. This is a part of the game I plan to talk about in the next article and both roles are where I started to play and where I am today. This week has been an exciting week for those who play the AD carry role because the new champion on the BETA is an AD carry, Lucian, the Purifier. As the numbers for damage and output are being tested, I can’t wait to share everything about this carry. I’m looking forward to doing extensive testing with him this weekend and accepting an AD carry with no crowd control or escape, a true high risk challenge.

Playing new games in beta can be exciting. Get to try out new characters, find out new abilities, and learn about the game you hope to play when it is live one day. Then you encounter the asshole trolls that have been playing the beta longer than you and bitch when you don’t know what you are doing. OF COURSE I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING, IT’S A BETA TEST!

Anyway, Infinite Crisis takes the amazing world of League of Legends and adds a DC twist to it, making it a very recognizable brand. Most people that are excited about this game are ones that have played LoL (League of Legends) and are excited for a new twist on the game.

Infinite Crisis takes DC characters from 6 different universes and puts them into one universe. You have your Prime universe, Gaslight and Nightmare (all live in beta) with characters that will also come from Arcane, Atomic and Mecha universes.

After playing a few rounds it seems that either some people are just getting frustrated, or they don’t realize what graphics settings their game is supposed to be set at. In every game, there are at least 2 people that leave the game which makes the game unfair, since it’s usually 2 from the same side. But there is still much more to discover within the game. The items you purchase seem to be similar to that of LoL. You can customize your character by purchasing skins from the store. You can buy different characters from the store as well.

From the looks of the character select screen, only about half of the playable characters are available at the moment, with more most likely to release as the street date (which is set for sometime in 2013) get closer. But as this E3 season draws to a close tomorrow, there are still many games exciting games to check out and anticipate!

And from my perspective, the race order goes like this: PS4 > Wii U > Xbox One (even though I will be getting an Xbox One).

And by the way, go sign up for the beta if you want to see more of the game play!

Which Side Are You On?

Aka: This has to be my favourite update and event to date!

Riot has made its next champion release into an event and connects heavily into the lore of the Freljord area. The Freljord is ruled over by the Avarosan’s leader Ashe and her husband, the barbarian king Tryndamere, whom she married to unite the people and the barbarians for peace. Not everything is as it seems; war has been brewing farther into the land by Sejuani, leader of the great Winter’s Claw tribe, who believe striving for peace is nothing but weakness. For her only the strong must survive. Deeper into the heart of the cold, the Frostguard lead by Lissandra had protected not only the secrets of Freljord but it’s greatest threat.

Long ago, before Freljord existed, there was the Frozen Watchers and they were lead by the three sisters; much like the three that exist now of Ashe, Lissandra and Sejuani. They gave up everything they had to the Frozen Watches in return for power, they would have to do the bidding for the Watchers and they strove over the land, creating an icy hell. Not all was well between the three; the youngest, Avarosa, betrayed them and the only one to survive was Lissandra. She vowed to finish what they had started and create the world as she saw fit, bring glory and power to the Watchers once more. She purged the world of the knowledge of this tribe and the history of what had happened and lived throughout the eras, changing who she was and what she affected in the world. When the second set of sisters were born, she knew that this was her time and kill the real Lissandra and taking her place as the leader of the Frostgaurd to bid her time. That time is now.

Trundle

This current patch by Riot has seen a lot of updates in lore, champions, skins and maps. They are offering a new map to ARAM (All Random All Middle) players called the Howling Abyss. ARAM is where everyone is given a random champions and go into a single lane where you can not go back to heal or buy unless you have died. They created a map that was a test zone for this called the Proving Grounds; this map had caused a large amount of the players to enjoy and play this ARAM but there wasn’t exactly a proper map for it. They created the Howling Abyss much like their 3v3 map called Twisted Treeline to tie in with the release of the champion Elise and her lore. The Howling Abyss is an area where the Watchers and the Iceborn fought at one point of their history and I do think it was rumored to be the place where the first sisters fought in a lore content of a speech that Lissandra gives if you playing her on the map. Easter egg of goodness, yes?! This was in the beta and I do not know if it was put into the live just yet.

Sejuani

Riot also released their reworks of both Trundle and Sejuani; both of these champions had been niche champions where only a small part of the community played them, especially Trundle. Trundle was a champion that was a bit on the broken side, not as bad as how broken Varus could be and had a small group of players who dedicated time and effort into learning. Riot wanted to make him more accessible to the community and did both a visual and kit rework, though the kit rework is not as large as Sejuani. Both are viable for jungling and as well top lane; their kits make them now stronger champions for the jungle. Sejuani’s kit was given a large overhaul which her visual adjust her looks making her look more like a warrior for the north. Her kit didn’t allow her to be played often nor did it offer much for a team. She made a great tank but at the time that was about it; with the new kit, she offers great control and great ganking abilities. I’ll say my team’s junglers are all having a hay day over these two. I haven’t had them be quiet for days over Skype. One is a big fan of Sejuani even before her rework but unfortunately we couldn’t play her ofter and the other two always wanted to give Trundle some more of the lime light. Personally, I’ve had a lot of fun with Sejuani on the team even if she didn’t offer much early and mid game but then again, our team loves our late game team comps. There is nothing like having a Sejuani charge right into the middle of the enemy and watch them scatter!

Lissandra

The new champion that has been release is Lissandra, the Ice Witch. She has been a champion with great anticipation and one of the many that Riot has been hinting at since the closed beta. She was known to the Ice Dervish or Dryad or whatever other names the community had floating about and in the files. The community had also demanded the third sister to be made into a champion after the original Freljord lore had been revealed through the League Journals and champion lore. It was said that Avarosa, Lissandra’s youngest sister gave birth the the three other sisters: Ashe, Sejuani and the original Lissandra. She is a high mobility mage with great kiting and ganking capabilities. Lissandra offers a lot of crowd control affect through slows and roots; she has a great mana management because of her passive which allows her to use one ability ever 18 seconds for free, there is no mana cost. Her strongest roles would be a mobility mid or a top for a double AP lane comp because she isn’t not exactly mana dependent and can go top without the worry about needed the Blue Buff that gives mana regen. Her ultimate offers a high percentage slow and a stun on target if cast on the enemy and if she casts it upon herself, it’s a built in free card from damage for 1.5 seconds.

Along with the reworks, Lissandra and the new map, Riot has turned this into a large event with unlockables, a promo site and with the free champion rotation. The champion rotation this week has all the champions that are involved into the war for Freljord including Quinn and Valor from Demacia who are witnesses to Lissandra’s plan. The unlockables are the summoner icons that they are offering, one for each of the tribes. Currents all three are plain symbols for the tribes and after 10 wins they will evolve and you will be able to keep the one you’ve chosen after the event. You cannot have all three, though I wish you could; it’s like pokemon right? Got to collect them all!! The 10 wins you need can be in normal or ranked play on any of the 4 maps. If you change your mind on which one you want, you can change it but you have to redo all of the 10 wins again.

Tribes (left to right): Avarosan, Winter’s Claw and Frostguard

There is also new icy skins available for Volibear, Shyana and a legendary skin for Anivia. These skins are quite the looker when I saw them back on the beta and being a large Shyana player, I can’t help but enjoy this particular skin. The skin for Anivia, the Cyrophoenix, is an amazing skin and a legendary one to boot. It offers a lot more than the other skins with not just a visual change. Her actions, particles and affects are all different; allowing this skin to be above and beyond the normal priced skins. The legendary skins that Riot has been coming out with the last couple they have done is really amazing. Their previous legendary skins are great as well but as the years have gone on, they have redefined what they are looking for in a skin and what would make it legendary.

Infinite Crisis is set across the 52 universes of the DC multiverse, and promises map-altering events across various DC locations. So far Turbine has promised steampunk and post-apocalyptic themed stages. Map-specific interactive elements, such as throwing cars or calling down meteor showers, are also mentioned.

Each character in Infinite Crisis comes with one passive skill and four active abilities, one of which appears to be an ultimate.

The class types on show in Infinite Crisis at the moment fit into traditional MOBA archetypes: Assassin, Bruiser, Marksman, Blaster, Support, and Enforcer.

Turbine also says that Infinite Crisis will contain an unfolding story line developed in partnership with DC Entertainment.

Warner Bros. Interactive and Turbine Studios, the developer behind the Lord of the Rings Online, have announced the Free-to-Play DC Comics MOBA Infinite Crisis. The game will be released later this year, and it will also have a beta before release. They haven’t announced if it is going to be a payed beta, which for some reason is so popular these days.

Infinite Crisis is set across the 52 universes of the DC multiverse, and promises map-altering events across various DC locations. So far Turbine has promised steampunk and post-apocalyptic themed stages. Map-specific interactive elements, such as throwing cars or calling down meteor showers, are also mentioned.